Original manuscript

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. b81 V/1962

Although both De brieven 1990 and Hulsker 1993-1 date this letter ‘16 or 17 August’, it must have been written a month later, since it announces a journey to London (l. 13) that took place on Saturday, 23 September. In letter 92 of 3 October, Van Gogh says (l. 22): ‘A week ago on Saturday I made a long journey to London’. That this took place on 23 September is confirmed in the family correspondence (FR b2773). Therefore, on the basis of l. 13, the letter could have been written at the earliest on the previous Saturday, 16 September. Moreover, Mr van Gogh told Theo that in a letter received on Sunday, 24 September, Vincent related that Teunis van Iterson had been to see him and that he really had walked to London, all of which means that the present letter must have been written between 16 and 22 September. Cf. exhib. cat. Nottingham 1974, p. 8.

Van Gogh sent the letter with Van Iterson, along with Wetherell’s Wijde wijde wereld, as evidenced both by the remark ‘Herewith the “Wijde wijde wereld” and another little book’ (ll. 8-9) and by another remark in letter 92: ‘If Van Iterson gave you that English hymnal, read No. 14’ (l. 56). Furthermore, this note, scribbled hastily in pencil, is written (in Dutch) in the present tense: ‘Van Iterson just came and surprised me’.